He Ran Because `It Was There'

April 06, 1995|by PHYLLIS GUTH, The Morning Call

Antarctica seems a strange setting for the Marathon from Hell.

While temperatures hovered around the freezing mark, Paul Wessel climbed a steep glacier, waded through icy streams, fought fierce winds from an iceberg-filled bay, slogged through 3 miles of bog and crossed fields of stone.

The 26-mile race, billed as "The Last Marathon" took place Feb. 5 on King George Island --uninhabited except by scientists, seals, penguins and skuas (native birds about the size of eagles). Among the 84 hardy souls who took part was Wessel, an Allentown resident and executive at Rodale Press Inc., Emmaus.

One marathoner had to be taken out of the race because of hypothermia.

Another was chased by an irate penguin.

Several fell up to their knees or waists into crevices on the glacier and had to be helped out. Surprisingly, no one was hurt.

Wessel ducked the skuas aiming for him. "It was kind of like the biggest damn bird you ever saw," he recalls. "They were dive bombing people and getting uncomfortably close. Their goal in life is to eat penguins."

Finally, Wessel reached the road. It was no better -- all mud, hills, wide streams and no bridges.

Throughout the race, weather conditions alternated from sunny and warm to foggy and cold.

This was the Antarctic summer.

Runners did two laps on the 13-mile course. They slowed to a walk when they reached the 2 miles of glacier on the second lap.

Wessel developed blisters on one foot and stopped at the halfway mark to grease them with Vaseline and change socks. He never considered dropping out, despite his blisters, knee pain and a sore groin muscle.

He came in 38th out of the 84 who completed the race, finishing in 5 hours, 40 minutes. Twenty-one dropped out.

Bob Wischnia of Macungie, a Runner's World editor, competed in the half marathon, but traveled on the sister ship. They signed up independently of each other.

Wischnia, who has competed in races all over the world, says the Antarctica marathon was "definitely the most incredible event."

Wessel's son Jim, 17, who lives in a Chicago suburb, accompanied him and ran in the half marathon.

Why would anyone run in Antarctica, with its harsh weather and punishing terrain?

"Because it was there," Wessel jokes. "I have this thing about running on every continent."

To date, he's competed in Australia, Europe, and North America as well as Antarctica.

"This was the toughest."

The runners flew first to Buenos Aires, then to the southernmost city in Argentina. There, they boarded two ships for the one-day crossing to Antarctica across the Drake Passage, reputed to have the coldest and roughest waters in the world.

Twenty-foot waves broke across the ship's bow. The winds reached 50 miles per hour. Wessel was one of few onboard who wasn't seasick or taking medicine to prevent it.

Wessel trained for the race by running 35-40 miles a week. Normally, he runs an average of 20-25 miles a week.

"I'm certain I'm healthier than if I hadn't been running."

For the race, he had glacier spikes custom-fitted to an old pair of running shoes. The spikes proved dangerous on rocks and nearly caused him to fall into a river.

"Nobody was prepared for mud. We thought we'd be running on ice."

The runners lived aboard ship during their four-day stay in Antarctica. They went ashore for training and sightseeing on rubber rafts that held about a dozen people.

Wessel and several others donned swimsuits and tested the frigid ocean water "so we could say we did it."

During the hours the runners spent training on the shore of Deception Island, Wessel's ship anchored inside a live volcano. The volcano last erupted in 1979. The harbor was created when the ocean broke through an outer wall of the volcano.

Wessel, who is a vice president and chief financial officer at Rodale, started running in 1982. His friend, Carol Scheer, now his wife, decided to train for the New York marathon. He thought she was crazy, but started training with her, ran in the marathon and "got hooked on it." Scheer no longer runs marathons, but race walks.

The runners came from North America, Australia, Germany, Finland and Venezuela.

Passengers were warned not to disturb the environment and not to litter.

"They were zealous about protecting the environment. They don't want to be regulated out of business."

Despite the harshness of the land, Wessel found it "unbelievably beautiful."

"The water is so clean and clear. The ice is pure white. We'd sail through a narrow passage and see the white walls of ice going straight up."

He remembers when he spotted his first iceberg. "It was `wow.' Everybody rushed out on the deck."

Before long they were in a "forest of icebergs."

Penguins swam alongside the ship.

"They swim like fish. They're like little torpedoes, very fast."

At one point, he saw a "convoy of whales, seals and penguins intermixed with each other."

Although the race was billed as "The Last Marathon," Wessel's not through yet.